It is well known to form an alloy body by static casting. Static casting includes pouring a molten alloy in a mold, solidifying. However, a problem with static casting is that the resulting alloy body is subject to impurities and high porosity, both of which may reduce the strength of the alloy body.
It is also known to form an alloy body by a wrought method. Such wrought method includes heating an alloy to a temperature below its melting temperature, and striking the alloy to refine the grain size and reduce porosity. The resulting wrought alloy body has generally less porosity than an alloy body produced by static casting. However, the wrought method is often limited to the use of a small number of “standard” alloys, in addition to generally being more complicated and expensive than casting methods.
It is also known to form an alloy body by centrifugal casting. A centrifugally cast alloy body has generally less impurities and porosity than an alloy body produced by static casting. Aluminum pieces produced by centrifugal casting, however, still commonly have a significant amount of porosity and generally do not possess the overall strength and toughness properties that can be achieved with pieces created using wrought techniques.
To date, most centrifugally casting of aluminum alloys has been carried out using alloys with standard cast aluminum chemistries. Due to differences in alloy composition, pieces formed from alloys with standard cast aluminum chemistries are generally incompatible with wrought alloy bodies because the alloys formed by the wrought method and centrifugal casting generally have different physical and mechanical properties.